50 research outputs found
The wedding of two trees: connections, equivalences, and subjunctivity in a Tamil ritual
From Wiley via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: pub-electronic 2021-06-25Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedAbstract: A wedding between two trees in a Tamil village reveals that a tree can be more than, while still remaining, a tree. It needs to be a tree because trees do certain things. It can be made more than a tree, however, through a logic of homological connections which temporarily create equivalences between trees and divinities. The wedding (kalyanam), a ubiquitous Tamil ritual form which pertains not only to marriage, creatively and subjunctively opens up new possibilities to change āit could beā and āit should beā to ālet it be soā. The wedding of two trees seeks to materialize ideal situations and outcomes by mobilizing the aliveness of trees, a quality they share with humans and animals, without positing personhood, identity, or confusing categories. In making this argument, I question choices of comparators in anthropological analyses which posit a holistic ānonāWestā against a dualistic āWestā and contrast a takenāforāgranted āusā with āourā really rather different āothersā
Attention to infrastructure offers a welcome reconfiguration of anthropological approaches to the political
This constitutes the edited proceedings of the 2015 meeting of the Group for Debates in Anthropological Theory held at Manchester